Forget the other eight nominees for Best Picture; this is a two-horse race between The Social Network and The King’s Speech. The Social Network is smart, funny, and very of-the-moment, but is it too smart for its own good? Everyone admires it, but do they love it? — Richard Corliss, Time (transcribed from the above video).
For what it’s worth, The Social Network is a better crafted, better written, more complicated, and much more daring film than The King’s Speech, and for those reasons (as well as others I could list), it deserves the Best Picture Oscar. And yes, this is coming from a long-time fan of Colin Firth (have you seen my Tumblr?), Geoffrey Rush, and British period dramas.
But, like Corliss, I don’t know that such justice will prevail. I admire The Social Network immensely. That lightning-speed dialogue! That shifty nonlinear storytelling! Those anti-heroes! Still, like former Oscar-loser Citizen Kane, which Corliss mentions at the end of the video, that Facebook movie and the characters within are indeed quite hard to love and difficult to connect with while The King’s Speech as well as Firth’s and Rush’s performances is exceptionally easy to embrace, to root for. I’m not saying this is how Best Pictures should be judged, but looking at past winners/losers, this sort of mentality (or gut reaction?) has definitely played a role, e.g., Slumdog Millionaire over Milk and/or Frost/Nixon, Crash (oh lord!) over everything, Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction, etc. In brief, I suppose it all depends on whether the Academy votes with their heads or with their hearts.
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,